An Overall View of PETA's Media Tactics

By Edward Kane

(PETA)

With the help of media, PETA has successfully promoted the issue of animal abuse in the last decade. Using different forms of mass communications is essential in reaching largely dispersed audiences, the producers and the potential consumers of animal-harming products/services provided by: the entertainment industries, domestic farms, fur trade industries, and animal-testing laboratories.

Video Advertisement: "If the World was Ruled by Animals" (2012)

(YouTube)

In 2012, PETA published a video titled “If the World was Ruled by Animals” on its official YouTube channel. Featuring a fashion show, the video plays a 30 second introduction in which different animals walk the runway wearing fancy dresses made out of human flesh and bones. The source of the dresses is soon revealed— behind the stage, a caged human child is shivering, surrounded by blood-soaked tools and corpses. As the viewers learn the existence of the child, a song with repeating lyrics, “How do you like me now”, is played in the background.

Such video is published online in an effort to reach a wide range of audiences, particularly the executives of fur trade industries and the consumers of animal fur products, based on the assumption that the Internet is the most common yet influential form of media in modern days. The video, however, is influential not only because of its use of the Internet, but also because of its visual features.

The video is indisputably a form of “shock advertising”, a genre of advertising that aims to elicit interest in the organization’s cause by unnerving the consumers. The provocative images of human suffering involved in the video are expected to trigger, as the name of the technique implies, shock from the audience, and therefore emphasize the bloodthirsty nature of wearing animal fur. The music with lyrics “How do you like it now” also aims to solidify the effects through the use of repetition. Repetition, if used in the right measure, can keep the advertisement's message in the forefront of consumers' minds.

" PETA uses visuals & music to shock the audience, and convey the message more effectively."

Print Advertisement: "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" (2007)

Print advertisement is another prevalent form of PETA’s media use. Its benefits lie on its tendency to convey a certain level of professionalism, as well as its tendency to be targeted to a very specific group of audience. The target audience of a particular print advertisement is usually narrowed to a group from a specific geographical and a cultural region, thus, connecting the general content and the message of the advertisement with the audience on a personal level. The connection positively affects the audience’s perception of the organization and its ideals.

PETA’s series of “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” advertisements demonstrate the general qualities of print advertisements. Each advertisement poster consists of a photograph of an American film star/pornographer posing nude, as well as the caption “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur”.

Through its use of popular figures, PETA encourages American teenagers to join its actions in saving animals exploited by fur industries. The teenagers are likely to be motivated to join the organization in hopes of forming intimate connections with their idols. Nudity and other sexual imageries, according to PETA's co-founder Ingrid Newkirk, catches attention and "sells" to the young adults.

PETA’s efforts to attract younger audience is based on the group’s influence in the American market. Mediamark Research Inc., an American market research firm that gathers more than 25,000 public responses of advertisements per year, has stated in 2009 that teenagers affect social trends, which can provide a window-view into the society of what organizational practices receive favorable receptions. PETA, in an attempt to captivate the teenagers with celebrities and nudity, is encouraging the group to influence the rest of the society’s view on animal rights.

(Huffington Post)

"Sex sells to young people."

- Ingrid Newkirk, 2003

" Celebrities and nudity appeal to the teenagers and encourage them to promote animal rights"

Website: "McCruelty: I'm Hatin' It" (2002)

PETA has also been known to encourage consumers to boycott businesses related to meat-consumption. In 2002, PETA created a website “McCruelty: I’m Hatin' It” to support its anti-McDonald’s campaign. Still in service today, the website consists of pages with information regarding the cruelty involved in McDonald’s meat production and policies.

(McCruelty)

The title of the website is an ostensible parody of McDonald’s slogan, “McDonald's: I’m Lovin’ It”. Serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries across more than 36,000 outlets, McDonald’s is undeniably the word’s largest chain of fast-food restaurants, and hence, the parody appeals to the web surfers’ familiarity with the original slogan. Along with the satirical title, PETA has posted disturbing graphics on the cruelty involved in McDonald’s poultry production, once again demonstrating the “shock advertisement”. The use of “shock advertisement” in the website, however, is slightly different from the identical technique used in “If the World Was Ruled by Animals” in that the audience is presented with realistic images. PETA intentionally exposes social reality through shock and sensationalism, thus directly asking the audience to face the truth behind McDonald’s meat patties.

The techniques allow the audience to associate McDonald's with barbaric animal abuse and downgrade the corporation's overall brand image. Brand image is arguably one of the most important factors in determining the businesses' financial stability, and by arousing the customers to boycott McDonald's hamburgers, PETA aims to weaken McDonald's long-standing financial stability.

" Satirical website title and disturbing graphics arouse the consumers to boycott McDonald's hamburgers."